Case Study - SOCIAL VENTURE PARTENERS-

Social Venture Partners (SVP) is a venture philanthropy organization that creates a community of social investors to fund social ventures or enterprises that bear more risk than others. Divided into chapters around the world, the Boulder, Colorado chapter has a mission to "maximize social impact by assisting nonprofit organizations in strengthening organizational capacity and sustainability through the creative use and leverage of our partners' skills and resources.

Founded in 2000, Social Venture Partners Boulder County is a donor-advised fund within the local community foundation. The investors-donors, or "parents" who provide the funds, make a minimum three-year commitment of at least $5.000 per year, participate in a voting process to select which nonprofit to invest in each year, and volunteer their time and expertise to the funded nonprofits. The advantage for an individual to make a donation to SVP versus making a direct donation to the organization is that the money can be pooled together to create a big and fast impact, similar to venture capital. The donors also get to be directly involved with grant recipients to ensure that funds are being used in the proper manner and as efficiently as possible, creating results in terms of value and social impact.

The focus of SVP is funding the areas of youth development during out-of-school time, early childcare and education, and strengthening educational and economic opportunities for Latinos. An example of this is the support of Growing Gardens; an organization dedicated to cultivating community through gardening by teaching sustainable agriculture, leadership, entrepreneurial, and life skills to youth.

SVP's support of Growing Gardens is directed towards Cultiva! Youth Project, a youth-operated organic market garden. Youth between the ages of 11 and 20 plant and nurture a 2-acregarden, harvest the produce weekly to sell at the Boulder County farmer's Market, and donate a portion of what is harvested to those in need in the local community. In 2006, SVP gave Growing Gardens $15.000, including $10,000 for general operating support of the Cultiva! Youth Project and $5,000 designated to support implementation of an earned income strategy SVP partners have personally assisted in earned income strategy development and implementation, improving management systems and strategic planning.

1. What are the advantages for a donor of participating in a venture philanthropy organization versus traditional philanthropy?

2. What types of recipient organizations are best-suited to SVP-type funding? If all philanthropy were to move to this model, would any nonprofits be hurt?

3. Is there any down side to a recipient organization taking philanthropy fund such as SVP?